Ever wondered how top ecommerce and SaaS companies consistently grow their revenue? The secret weapon is smart upselling.
With studies showing that upselling can increase revenue by 10-30% on average, it’s a technique you can’t afford to ignore.
But here’s the catch: upselling isn’t just about pushing products — it’s about adding genuine value while honoring your customer’s needs.
In this guide, we’ll unveil proven upselling techniques to boost your bottom line and enhance customer satisfaction. Ready to take your revenue to the next level while keeping your customers’ best interests at heart?
What is Upselling?
Upselling is a sales technique that encourages customers to purchase a more expensive or upgraded version of a product or service.
It is an effective tactic to boost revenues but it isn’t just about profits. Instead, effective upselling techniques:
- Suggest relevant upgrades or add-ons;
- Focuses on products with similar functions but higher quality;
- Demonstrates additional value to justify the higher price.
For example, take the case of Lululemon. It uses upsell techniques on it’s online store. When a customer is looking at a small card case, Lululemon suggests a high-end variant with better designs and features.
Upselling vs. Cross-Selling
Upselling shouldn’t be confused with cross-selling. While both aim to increase sales, they differ in approach.
Upselling encourages customers to buy a higher-value version of their intended purchase, while cross-selling promotes complementary items, like the ‘Frequently Brought Together’ section on Amazon.
So how to know the difference between upselling and cross-selling? Here’s a simple chart on what differs:
| Upselling | Cross-selling | |
| Goal | Encourages the purchase of a higher-value version | Promotes complementary or related items |
| Focus | Upgrading the main product | Adding supplementary products |
| Benefits for customer | Getting a better version of the intended purchase | Discovering related products to improve the experience of the primary purchase |
| Common technique | “Upgrade to premium” options | “Frequently bought together” suggestions |
| Key advantage | Increases average order value | Increases items per transaction |
| Example | Suggesting a faster, feature-rich smartphone | Recommending Airbuds with a smartphone |
While upselling and cross-selling are distinct strategies, they share a common goal: offering customers more value, thereby boosting revenue. This increase in revenue occurs without investing towards acquiring new customers.
Best Upselling Techniques for Online Services
One perfect place to upsell is your pricing page for SaaS and online services. You can do so by displaying features & prices across different plans, side by side, like we’ve done:
This nudges the visitor to explore all the available options and consider a higher-tier plan (with better features). For example, the ‘best value’ tag and highlight on the professional plan in the image above divert attention to the higher plan.
Create FOMO to Boost Premium Conversions
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a powerful psychological trigger that can significantly enhance your upselling strategy.
By highlighting the added value customers might miss without an upgrade, you can drive more premium conversions. Here are effective ways to leverage FOMO:
- Limited-time offers. Set special upgrade prices with clear deadlines. Use countdown timers to create urgency;
- Exclusive benefits. Offer unique perks for premium members. Showcase these advantages throughout the customer journey;
- Social proof. Highlight the popularity of premium options. Display customer testimonials and recommendations;
- Live activity updates. Show real-time purchases or upgrades. Create a sense of gamification and competition.
Guide Users with Helpful Tooltips for Upgrades
Successful SaaS platforms, like Userpilot and Ahrefs, effectively use tooltips to encourage users to upgrade.
A tooltip is a small, contextual message that pops up when a user interacts with a specific feature on your site or software. Think of it as a mini guide supplying extra info or clarification.
Remember, their effectiveness depends on placement, copy, and how seamlessly they fit into the user experience. Predict where users might have questions or issues, and let tooltips offer practical, real-time solutions.
Tooltip-guided upsells aim to both increase your profits and improve customer experience by offering needed features.
Give Power Users a Taste of Premium
Power users, i.e., your most active and engaged customers, are prime candidates for upselling. They already understand your product’s value and are more likely to appreciate premium features.
Give these users a glimpse of what they’re missing — offering them a limited-time trial of the premium features, for instance. Once the trial is over, send them a friendly email, like below:
Pro tip: Highlight the advantages and capabilities of your premium offerings during the trial, as it makes users aware of the extra value they get using premium features (and convert faster).
Remember, your end goal is not merely to showcase the premium features but to create a need for them. Tailor the trial period based on user behavior and preferences. A tailored approach like this can drive interest and incentivize upgrades.
Encourage interactions with premium features by showcasing how they can solve complex problems or deliver improved results.
Prompt Upgrades when Users Hit Limits
Capitalizing on usage limits is a strategic way to drive upsells. When users reach these thresholds, it creates a perfect opportunity to present an upgrade as a solution to their immediate needs.
AMZ Scout provides five free searches for their Amazon Keyword tool. Once you hit the limit, you’ll be prompted to upgrade.
Setting limits can be a great move as it serves a dual purpose:
- For users. It provides access to advanced features when most needed;
- For businesses. It creates organic upsell opportunities, boosting revenue.
This method not only drives revenue growth but also enhances user experience by providing timely solutions to their evolving needs.
Tailor Upgrade Offers for Free Trial Users
Tailoring upgrade offers for free trial users can significantly increase your chances of converting potential customers into paying clientele.
Free trial users are potential customers who’ve already shown interest in your product. A lucrative upgrade offer can push them towards a purchase.
Here’s what you should do:
- Segmenting users based on their needs and usage patterns;
- Demonstrating premium features’ value before trial end;
- Creating urgency with timely upgrade prompts;
- Personalizing the offer based on their interests and needs.
This strategy highlights the value gap between free and premium versions. And by personalizing offers based on user behavior and needs, you increase the likelihood of converting free trial users into loyal paying customers.
Learn how to tailor your offers here: Email Personalization Unlocked: 12 Strategies You Can’t Miss
Best Upselling Techniques for Ecommerce
SaaS isn’t the only industry where upsell works wonders. Product recommendations using upsell techniques can significantly increase the revenue for ecommerce stores.
In fact, personalized upsell recommendations increase revenue and conversion rates by up to 300% and 150%, respectively.
Got you excited? Keep reading and unearth some tried-and-tested upselling strategies you can try right away for your store:
Tap into Impulse Buying at the Checkout Page
Impulse purchases drive a lot of revenue for ecommerce brands. You can leverage it for upselling by offering related, low-cost items at checkout.
Think of it like the last-minute ‘picks’ near checkout counters in physical stores to boost the average order value.
Bundle complementary products to create perceived value and move slower-selling items alongside popular ones.
For example, pair laptop sales with accessories like bags, mice, or software subscriptions.
Keep options limited to avoid overwhelming customers. Focus on enhancing the main product’s usefulness or solving additional customer needs.
Remember, effective bundling is about enhancing the product’s usability and offering customers a solution to a problem they didn’t realize they had.
Sprinkle Discounts to Spark Interest in Upsells
Who doesn’t love a good discount, especially the limited ones with a timer? When combined with an upsell, such sales promotions become hard for genuine customers to ignore.
Here’s an interesting example by Geek Crate:
This product page has a great upsell discount right below the buy button. There’s a 40% off for first-time customers who subscribe to a plan (instead of a one-off purchase). The promise of free bonus items would surely lure a potential buyer into subscribing.
They could have made the offer for a more limited period, though, as it would push them to buy sooner (rather than later).
When creating similar offers for your store, remember to:
- Make the offer easy to avail (less friction);
- State the terms and conditions (time, percentage limits, etc.);
- Automate the countdown timer setup process.
Ready to boost conversions with urgency? Automate upsell emails with countdown timers using Sender.
Add a Free Shipping Progress Bar
One of the best ways to nudge customers with an upsell offer is to use a progress bar. Here’s an example by an ecommerce brand Caudabe:
Did you notice the subtle nudge at the top? The progress bar works wonders with a free shipping offer if someone adds at least $9 worth of products. Gamification of the shopping process makes the entire thing fun and encourages shoppers to visualize they’re very close to getting an extra discount.
How to Identify Upselling Opportunities?
Capitalizing on upselling opportunities requires keen consumer understanding and tactical implementation of customer-centric strategies. Remember, it’s about boosting your revenue and enhancing the customer’s end-to-end journey with your brand.
Segment Between New Customers and Existing Ones
Categorizing customers based on their relationship helps you take a personalized approach to upselling. This requires you to identify customer wants and group customers based on common criteria.
A successful upselling strategy requires you to know what your customers want. Segmenting based on their purchase history and relationship with the brand helps you float offers that match personalized needs and stages in the buyer’s journey.
Here are the steps you must take:
- Identify and segment customers based on their relationships;
- Utilize relationships with existing customers for faster upsells;
- Personalize your upsell offers based on past purchases and interactions;
- Match upgrades to a consumer’s preferences and needs;
- Experiment with unique customer offers at different stages of the buyer’s journey.
Utilizing Customer Lifetime Value for Upselling/Cross-Selling
A robust sales technique is harnessing the power of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to increase sales. The CLV is a predictive index pointing to the net profit attribute to the future customer relationship.
By understanding a customer’s CLV, you gain enlightened insights into what the customer might be interested in next. This enables you to offer customers poised to buy identical or complementary products.
This individualized attention increases immediate sales and fosters an ongoing connection that may boost repeat purchases over a longer period.
Utilizing Customer Data for Opportunities
Utilizing customer data is pivotal to crafting effective upselling techniques. A deep dive into customer data uncovers patterns, preferences, and behaviors critical to understanding their needs. This enables you to tailor your upselling approach, meeting them where they are.
For instance, browsing behavior, past purchases, or geographic location can highlight relevant potential upsells. Personalizing the customer experience in this way amplifies the effectiveness of your upselling efforts and cultivates deeper customer loyalty and trust.
Boosting Average Order Value with Upselling/Cross-Selling
Upselling strategies are a potent tool to boost sales, augment the dimensions of transactions, and enhance customer relationships. By offering add-ons, premium features, or beneficial bundles, you make effective upselling offers that increase the value of each purchase.
Apple makes upgrading from Apple Music to Apple One almost a no-brainer. Apple Music alone costs $10.99 per month. However, Apple upsells and cross-sells to get more users and more apps they can use.
Prioritizing Customer Satisfaction in Sales Efforts
Solving customer problems should be at the core of your sales process. When building your upsell offers, you must address recurring customer pain points.
You can do so by introducing products or bundles to sweeten the deal for them. For example, a 50% off on an additional unit for a product that requires periodic refilling.
Not only will it help you appear more empathic to their needs, but it will also bring incremental revenue when they buy your upsell.
How to Improve Upselling Efforts?
Effective upselling is an art that you must master by regularly testing out your offers and targeting. Here are some tips to improve your upselling strategy:
Provide Visuals for Reinforcing Value
Another method to improve your upselling efforts is by adding appealing visuals to your upsell offers.
When proposing an upgrade, vividly showcase the extra features and benefits of higher-tier products or services. Graphics, charts, or other visual tools help customers quickly grasp the additional value they’d get from the upsell.
Implement Time-Limited Offers
Offering time-limited discounts can provide that extra nudge needed to compel a customer to accept your upsell offer. By creating a sense of urgency, customers may feel more inclined to upgrade immediately to take advantage of an exclusive or short-lived offer.
Make Upselling a Breeze for Customers
Upselling should be as easy as possible for your customers. You aim to give them more bang for their buck, but naturally and simply – not like they’re being steered. Here’s what you must remember:
- Create relevant upsell offers;
- Reduce the number of steps or clicks for adding upsell offers to the cart;
- Be transparent about the terms/conditions and benefits of an upsell offer.
Wrapping Up
Upselling allows you to grab incremental revenue when done at the right moment. Here’s what you must remember while planning your ecommerce upselling strategy:
- Use your checkout page to induce FOMO or appeal to impulse buyers;
- Never show desperation or turn pushy with your upsell messages/tactics;
- Create value-based upselling bundles that save money or make your customer’s life easier;
- Segment your customers (existing/new buyers) to personalize your upsell efforts.
Learn more great marketing strategies through these articles:
- 5 Best Upsell App for Shopify in 2023 (Free & Paid)
- 8 Types of Sales Promotion Tools & Advertising Mediums
